Tyler is serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Brazil Campinas mission. He will be serving for a period of 2 years, from July 17, 2013 - 2015. If you would like to email Tyler while he is serving, his email is tyler.welch@myldsmail.net.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Tender Mercies

Man. What a week. What blessings. This work is incredible. Sorry for the bullet pointed letter but gotta go!

-Mom gave a talk on Easter? Haha she always gives talks on Holidays. I look forward to reading it after I print it off.-Matt is an animal. (thought I would throw that in there)-So Dad, you were on the money with the leadership in this Branch. Its super challenging to get things done, especially with the history. The leaders not only don't know how to lead, but their simple knowledge of the gospel is very limited. For example, our branch president didn't know there was 5 sessions of general conference, let alone priesthood session. Because of this, I have studied chapter 13 of Preach My Gospel over and over and over again, and ohhhhh yeah the Lord is leading the way.-We spent a lot of time praying and thinking and studying about a Branch Mission Plan. After about 4 weeks, we presented to the leadership and they absolutely loved it. The Relief Society President started crying! It was pretty awesome because they´ve never seen organization before. Unfortunately, the past missionaries didn't leave a good impression, and with that and the leadership, everything in this branch got put on slow motion.-Because of the lack of organization, a couple of things usually happen. For example:

The Relief Society President scheduled a lunch for us about 2 in a half hours away walking... We talked to her a couple days before where she told us she would cancel it. Haha, well she forgot. As we had a booked schedule with appointments, we couldn't afford to walk there and back. The Sister in the branch called us to and told us that everything was ready... We said a prayer, received a prompting to hitchhike (I know... But it was a prompting), AND RECEIVED A RIDE ALL THE WAY THERE! Boom, tender mercy.

We had to visit some other people that live about 2 hours away by foot, but because of the lack of knowledge of our area, we planned to eat lunch when we got dropped off by the bus. Well, no restaurants exist there, the only one that does was closed. We submitted ourselves, thought about what the Savior would do and just kept working without complaint. 30 minutes later, this man pulled up to us and gave us a whole bunch of free fruit. Haha we taught him the Restoration too... Boom, tender mercy.

Yesterday, before Sacrament Mtg, the 1st counselor touched me on the shoulder and jokingly said that I was going to give a 10-15 minute talk. I laughed with him.... Until the branch president called my name. Haha but instead of complaining in my head, I said a prayer and submitted myself to it. I gave a talk on how we can hear the voice of the Lord. I related it to the first vision when Heavenly Father said ´´This is my beloved son, Hear Him!´´ as well as the Resurrection because yesterday was Easter. The Lord tied it all together and put a cherry on top. It was one of the coolest experiences I've had. I could feel the Spirit of The Lord at every part of my body. At lunch yesterday, one of the sisters said she and a few others are calling our mission president this week to make sure we don't get transferred. I don't know if they can do that, but oh well. Nonetheless, BOOM! Tender Mercy

There's so much more, like a couple of less active families we are working with to reactivate. Some have kids that aren'tmembers of the church yet.I'm excited for this work. I'm just a humble servant trying to please my Father every day. As I seek to align my will with His every morning in prayer, the days get better and better. The only thing that stinks is that they seem to go by faster. I seriously am having so much fun!

Love you guys! I pray for you by name almost every nightElder Welch

1 Nephi 1:20Preach My Gospel - chapter 3 lesson 5. "After the covenant of Baptism is made, missionary work is a commandment that is given!" Whoooooo!!Fill me in on your studies this week please!